Three Presidential Candidates Request One-on-One Debates

A day after the final debate of the presidential candidates, representatives of Hassan Rouhani, Ebrahim Raisi, and Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf called for one-on-one debates among the candidates. According to ISNA news agency, Mohammad Ali Vakili, spokesperson for Hassan Rouhani's campaign, stated that Rouhani is ready to debate Ebrahim Raisi and Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf. He added, "As Mr. Rouhani and Mr. Jahangiri clearly stated yesterday, we are not debating Mr. Raisi and Mr. Qalibaf as individuals, but as heirs of eight years of Ahmadinejad's government. Because the entire team of Mr. Ahmadinejad is either part of the advisors and managers of Mr. Raisi's campaign or have sometimes aligned with Mr. Qalibaf." On Friday, during the third presidential debate, Ebrahim Raisi reacted to Rouhani's criticisms of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government by suggesting a debate between Rouhani and Ahmadinejad. In response, Hassan Rouhani emphasized that the members of Ebrahim Raisi's campaign are managers of Ahmadinejad's government and prepare his programs, expressing readiness for a debate with Raisi. Ali Nikzad, Minister of Roads and Urban Development under Ahmadinejad, is the head of Ebrahim Raisi's campaign, and Masoud Mir Kazemi, Minister of Oil, Mohammad Mehdi Zahedi, Minister of Science, and Farhad Rahbar, head of the Management and Planning Organization during Ahmadinejad's government, are among other members of Raisi's campaign. Meanwhile, Mohammad Amin Tavakolizadeh, a representative of Ebrahim Raisi's campaign, requested in a letter to the head of the presidential election advertising commission to hold a televised debate between Raisi and Rouhani. He stated that the reason for this request was to "respond to the real questions and demands of the dear people and to address false claims made during this debate." In the third electoral debate held on Friday among six presidential candidates, although the focus of the questions was on economic issues, the candidates did not miss any opportunity to exchange accusations, especially economic and managerial accusations against each other. Hassan Rouhani accused Ebrahim Raisi of using the facilities of the Astan Quds Razavi for presidential election campaigning. He also implicitly accused the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and other institutions under the Supreme Leader of acting in favor of Raisi in the elections. In response, Ali Saeedi, the representative of the Supreme Leader in the IRGC, reiterated on Saturday, May 23, that this military institution has never interfered in any elections and will not interfere in the future. Ebrahim Raisi also accused Hassan Rouhani of preventing the investigation of "corruption" cases involving his close associates. Rouhani also referred to a case related to Qalibaf in 2005 without going into details, stating that if he had not prevented the media coverage of this case at that time, Qalibaf would not be in this position now. His reference could relate to a smuggling case involving Qalibaf's brother during his tenure at the Anti-Smuggling Headquarters, which some political figures and media have previously hinted at. In another part of the final electoral debate, Hassan Rouhani referred to the security background of the mayor of Tehran, stating that he sought to "suppress students" during his command of the police force. Meanwhile, Mohammad Dehghan, head of Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf's election campaign, wrote on his Twitter page: "Mr. Rouhani said things in yesterday's debate that he must answer to public opinion: a two-sided debate! We are ready anywhere and anytime." Es'hagh Jahangiri also reminded Qalibaf of the case of the transfer of municipal properties by the Tehran municipality to Qalibaf, saying, "What did you do with people's properties? You gave away 2200 billion tomans of national properties. You said they should pay for it in 20 years." Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf described Jahangiri's statements on Saturday as "lies" and threatened to take him to court for "stating false statistics." In this context, Qalibaf threatened Jahangiri with legal action. The economy is the main loser of the third electoral debate.